Silk Purse

Jacky Collins was not born to greatness… 

Born instead to a mother whose interests lie elsewhere and saddled with a stepfather who doesn’t want him, his life stretches out before him, bleak and miserable.

By the age of twelve, he becomes the ringleader of a boys’ gang and starts a life of crime, one that seems likely to inevitably land him in the nick.

The course of Jacky’s life changes dramatically when he goes to London on a whim. 

Eager to bilk as many rich Londoners of their money as possible, he doesn’t think about the future until it comes time to bed down for the night, desperately alone, cold, and frightened. 

The last thing P.C. Patrick Doyle expects to find on his rounds is an unhappy little boy, so thin that his ribs stick out. 
Upon hearing Jacky’s sad story, P.C. Doyle takes the boy home to his wife.

And so begins a new future for young Jacky Collins, leaving behind the ugliness and squalor of Hartlepool for the comfort and love of Uncle Pat and Aunt Bridget’s home in Theobald’s Road.

This new life is full of surprises for Jacky, from Aunt Bridget’s insistence that he regularly wash his face to having his tonsils out to attending a posh school. 

But what changes his life most of all is meeting Miss Cathleen Joyce, the granddaughter of Lord Slieve Aran, with whom he falls instantly in love — at the grand age of twelve — before being promptly sent back home. 

Yet as clever Jacky works his way through school, to Oxford, and into the world of advertising, gradually becoming the bright and distinguished John Sinclair Collins and beginning to make his mark on the world, he never forgets Cathleen Joyce…

Silk Purse is a thrilling literary tale that chronicles the life of a young boy as he tries to secure a place for himself in the wider world. 

‘Mr Tickell has a light touch and a delicate feeling for emotional relationships.’ - The Times Literary Supplement 

‘Mr Tickell is a kind of light John Buchan, and there is more room for more authors of his quality.’ - Daily Telegraph 

Jerrard Tickell was born in Dublin and wrote his first book at just 18. He was a member of the Royal Army Service Corps. His official duties took him all over the world including Egypt and practically every port in the Near East. His books, a number of which have been made into successful movies, include Moon Squadron, Island Rescue and Hussar Honeymoon .